Changing last modified date or time via PowerShell

Question

Is it possible to change a file or folders last modified date/time via PowerShell?

I have a folder folder1/ and I want to change the last modified date and time of that folder and it's contents via PowerShell.

score 58 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 05 '15 at 18:31

58

Get the file object then set the property:

$file = Get-Item C:\Path\TO\File.txt
$file.LastWriteTime = (Get-Date)

or for a folder:

$folder = Get-Item C:\folder1
$folder.LastWriteTime = (Get-Date)

edited Jun 05 '15 at 18:31

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

112,807

answered Jun 05 '15 at 18:20

EBGreen

9,395

3

This can be done in one line, as (Get-Item C:\Path\To\File.txt).LastWriteTime = (Get-Date) – user7868 Jun 28 '21 at 00:36
1

weird for folder doesn't seem to work – user75875 Nov 28 '21 at 22:38
It seems like for folders recurse solutions below are necessary, and it won't apply to the "top level" folder. – Justin Apr 12 '23 at 14:03

score 27 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 13 '18 at 15:33

27

The following way explained here works for me. So I used:

Get-ChildItem  C:\testFile1.txt | % {$_.LastWriteTime = '01/11/2005 06:01:36'}

Do not get confused by the "get-*" command... it will work regardless that it is a get instead of write or something. Keep also noted as written in the source that you need to use YOUR configured data format and maybe not the one in my example above.

answered Feb 13 '18 at 15:33

BastianW

709
5
11

1

That would be for all files within a folder. If it's just a single file, you could do (gci C:\testFile1.txt).LastWriteTime = '01/11/2005 06:01:36'. You can also replace the 'time' with Get-Date to dynamically set the current timestamp. – Blaisem Feb 02 '21 at 10:22

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 04 '16 at 13:41

11

Yes, it is possible to change the last modified date. Here is a one liner example

powershell foreach($file in Get-ChildItem folder1) {$(Get-Item $file.Fullname).lastwritetime=$(Get-Date).AddHours(-5)}

answered Nov 04 '16 at 13:41

Alex Nolasco

233

1

This was useful for me thanks. The Get-ChildItem also has a -Recurse option so you can also do it for the entire tree. – Mendhak Jun 13 '20 at 09:49

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 24 '21 at 11:12

9

To do a kind of unix touch in powershell on all files :

(Get-ChildItem -Path . –File –Recurse) | % {$_.LastWriteTime = (Get-Date)}

or all files and folders:

(Get-ChildItem -Path . –Recurse) | % {$_.LastWriteTime = (Get-Date)}

answered Feb 24 '21 at 11:12

Philippe

195

ertue ertue · Answer 5 · 2022-12-24T18:57:01.867

0

get-childitem d: \ * -recurse | % {$_.LastWriteTime = (Get-Date)}

This works for all files and folders in a tree.

edited Dec 24 '22 at 18:57

answered Dec 24 '22 at 18:56

ertue ertue

9

Changing last modified date or time via PowerShell

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